Letters to Romeo

Julie felt Roman catch hold of the loose end of her bandage, rotating it around her neck and she stared back at him.

Roman watched Julie's brown eyes that had turned wide for a few minutes, and he could hear her heart beating in her chest. He didn't have to look below her face to see how she looked in the mummy costume because he had done that before when they were on the dance floor.

When Roman had instructed in the letter to wear the bandage costume, he hadn't taken note that it would end up emphasising the curves of her body. He had noticed the way everyone eyed her.

"Roman?" Julie whispered his name as if she was scared someone would hear them when it was just them here.

"Hm?" Roman responded, where his hands had paused, and he hadn't torn the bandage from her.

Julie didn't know why Roman needed bandages, making her wonder if he was planning to get into more fights tonight. "You can take the bandages that's on my hand," she offered to help in exchange for him helping her get out of a sticky situation. This way her hands would get to breathe.

"I am good," said Roman. To tear the bandage, he didn't use the force of his hands and instead leaned towards her neck and used his teeth. Julie felt her heart stumble, making her breath hitch over his action. When he pulled back, his eyes met hers, and she felt his face too close, and for some reason, she felt Roman's sex appeal had skyrocketed.

Julie cleared her throat, her vision slightly dazed and blinking a couple of times before looking around the forest.

"Isn't this the restricted area of the forest?" questioned Julie, slightly worried that they had stepped in here and could get into trouble if the teachers found them here now.

"It is. A place where no one comes," remarked Roman, and at his words, Julie only turned more alert.

"We should go back from here," said Julie. Turning around, she started to walk, believing it was the right direction. But soon, she turned around and returned to where Roman stood, who had expected her to come back. "Which is the way to get out of here?"

Seeing Julie worried about getting caught, Roman was amused. His eyes caught the expressions on her face. It seemed that she had decided to leave her glasses in her dorm, and she had tied her hair. On the other hand, Julie waited for him to answer, but instead, she only received his stare.

"We are both going to get into trouble if Mr. Borrell or Mr. Evans see us here. Can you imagine having to act in two stage plays?" Julie asked him, not wanting to end up in another detention. Distracted, she looked at his attire and asked, "What is your costume today?" She had tried to figure out his look, but the only thing she came up with was a demon.

"Why don't you guess," Roman raised one of his eyebrows.

"Long brown coat, red paint on your neck. Black eyeshadow," said Julie trying to gather the details, and she said, "Sherlock Holmes? But then you look like a dead Sherlock Holmes." On noticing his eyes subtly narrowing at her words, she added, "You told me to guess. So what are you?"

"A dead person," Roman answered with a straight face and Julie's eyebrows furrowed.

"You are an odd dead person," replied Julie, and Roman rolled his eyes. "What?"

"You speak as if you know how a person from the dead looks," said Roman, starting to walk.

"Where are you going?" asked Julie because she didn't know how many more rules Roman had planned to break tonight.

Walking more than five steps away from where Julie stood, he stopped to look over his shoulder. He said, "The dead archeologist found the mummy," he raised his hand that held the bandages.

Huh? What did he mean by that?

When Roman turned and started to walk, Julie turned confused. Did he say he was a dead archaeologist? That was no costume at all! Thought Julie, missing his point while staring at his overcoat. The only mummy around here was her…

Frozen for a few seconds, she tried to understand the situation to avoid misunderstanding anything here. It was rare for anyone to choose to be an archaeologist during Halloween. It was highly unlikely for Roman to turn into an archaeologist, a dead archaeologist, she corrected herself. Unless… he already knew and he was here, thought Julie to herself.

Her eyes widened, and her jaw fell slack.

Roman was the letter thief?!

Some things did make sense, especially when Mr. Evans had caught her and Roman had come to speak to the counsellor. But still, it was hard to believe that it was him, who was the person writing to her. No wonder he never asked anything much about her study sessions in the letter!

Remembering the letter thief mentioning about the dorm she was staying in, being his previously, Julie found it hard to wrap it around her head that he was the one who had been leaving letters to her.

Roman had always behaved aloofly towards her in front of everyone, while he had been secretly enjoying bullying her!

Coming out of her thoughts, she noticed he had disappeared from her sight.

"Where did he go?" questioned Julie.

She ran past the trees, her eyes looking for him left and right in the direction he had walked. But she didn't find him, and she stopped, looking around while wondering where he went. Did she get lost deeper in the forest?

Julie was surrounded by the chirping sound of the crickets and leaves rustling against each other to create a whisper like a murmur in the wind. With not a single soul to be seen around, she slowly felt the bite of the cold weather on her skin exposed to the air.

"Roman?" Julie called, worry slightly coating her voice.

"What's the matter, troublemaker?" she heard the voice from above and behind her. Turning around, she looked up at the tree and noticed Roman sitting on the branch with his back leaning against the bark. He had a cigarette in between his fingers, "I thought someone was coming for you."

Julie pointed her finger at him, "All this time it was you!"

"Took you quite some time to put two and two," came the calm words of Roman, bringing his hand up, he took a puff from the cigarette, and he blew the smoke into the air.

"It is hard when the actual answer is four, but you have decided the answer to be five with two plus two," replied Julie, and she saw intrigue enter his eyes.

Somewhere Julie found it to be awkward to converse. Not the bad kind, but Julie doubted she would call it good either. She had gone back and forth in writing letters to the letter thief, all along not knowing the thief was right in front of her. Giving her tutoring lessons!

She then opened her palm and asked him, "My letter."

"I don't have it," came the quick response.